Commodity prices may sink deeper this year.

Purchasing, March, 1999 by Staff

World prices for metals, minerals, and other commodities will sink deeper this year after plunging in 1998, forecasts the World Bank. "Metals and minerals will drop from weak demand and increased production," says the bank's latest quarterly Global Commodity Markets Report. "Weak demand, big supplies, and rising inventories" in 1998 beset most of the 27 major world commodities tracked by the World Bank.

Looking at 1999, the report says "all major commodity groups are expected to have declining prices." Note that prices have already reached in the past two months their lowest levels since the late 1970s, according to the Bridge-Commodity Research Bureau's index of major world commodities. Since advances in technology have made production cheaper,...

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